The International Cricket Council (ICC) announced on Sunday that the winner of the ICC Women's World Cup will leave richer by $660,000. The runner-up will take home $330,000.

ICC Women’s World Cup 2017: The International Cricket Council (ICC) announced on Sunday that the winner of the ICC Women’s World Cup will leave richer by $660,000. The runner-up will take home $330,000. The tournament will be played by eight nations across four venues in England and will be played from June 24 to July 23. ICC has been working to enhance the reputation of women’s cricket around the world and to achieve this task it had announced in May that the total prize money for the tournament to be $2 million. It is ten times the amount from the last season in 2013. Nevertheless, the teams that qualify for the knockout stages will get $30,000 each even if they lose. The losing semi-finalist will bag $165,000.

In a report by Indian Express, the ICC Chief Executive David Richardson said, “The ICC Women’s World Cup is the pinnacle of the women’s game and as such the players should be rewarded appropriately. Two million dollars is the first step towards greater parity and recognition. The change will not happen overnight but the women’s game is crucial to the global growth of cricket.”

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The opening match will be played between New Zeland and Sri Lanka. India is one of the favourites to lift the trophy and is pitted against West Indies. They will be led by skipper Mithali Raj and will start the campaign from June 29. Meanwhile, the teams will get to tune up for the tournament with warm-up matches which commence on 19 June with host England taking on Sri Lanka in Chesterfield and India playing New Zealand in Derbyshire.